Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
6th amendment
Criminal justice court system
Criminal justice and civil justice system
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
6th amendment
Criminal justice court system
Criminal justice and civil justice system
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In today's era, when a criminal is charged for various crimes their given a shortcut to justice by simply accepting a plea deal. In this case, Larry Servedio faces multiple felonies: first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape, third-degree rape, third-degree criminal sexual act, third-degree criminal mischief, criminal impersonation, second-degree grand larceny, and second-degree strangulation. Servedio was also indicted for several misdemeanor charges: first-degree harassment, second-degree aggravated harassment, second-degree menacing and torturing and injuring an animal. If Mr. Servedio goes to trial and is able to prove his innocence of the charges pressed against him, then he is a free man and all charges get dropped. Yet, if Mr. Servedio
Both sides will carefully weigh the strength of their case and decide whether it is prudent to go to trial. The prosecution may also consider the publicity surrounding the case and whether there is public pressure to prosecute that particular defendant to the full extent of the law. The defense will consider the individual defendant’s desire to go to trial and the seriousness of the potential sentence. The Pros of Plea Bargaining
In the United States court system, many criminal cases are not resolved in a timely manner. One of the more common ways in which many cases are resolved quickly is through plea bargaining. Plea bargaining is defined as an agreement between defense attorneys and prosecutors. (Spohn & Hemmens, 2012) Alschuler (1979) describes plea bargaining as the self-conviction act of a defendant. Today, approximately ninety percent of defendants plead guilty because of plea bargaining.
A second disadvantage is that some may say that plea bargaining is unconstitutional since every American citizen has the right to trial by jury (Tapscott, 2017). According to those who oppose plea bargains, there is nothing free or fair about the choice that the plea bargains present (Klau,2013). Adding that defendants are asked to make the choice under pressure because of the possible charges and prison time they face if they don’t accept the plea bargain(Klau,2013). With this in mind, plea bargain can result into unjust sentencing for the
For my article I chose, “Decision Making in the Crime Commission Process: Comparing Rapist, Child Molesters, and Victim-Crossover Sex Offenders” by Eric Beauregard, Benoit Leclerc, and Patrick Lussier. In traditional beliefs it suggests sex offenders are mainly driven by an uncontrollable urge to sexually offend. This article takes a looks into comparing how rapist, child molesters, and victim-crossover sex offenders make their criminal decisions. It investigated how decision-making is involved in target selection. The researchers used mixed methods along with Clarke and Cornish’s decision-making model to evaluate the offender’s actions.
“A Few Good Men” demonstrates how the American court system works. Daniel Kaffee the Defense Attorney with help from Sam Weinberg and Joanne Galloway are assigned to represent Harold Dawson and Louden Downey in a murder trial against prosecutor Jack Ross. Five themes that were shown are plea bargains can be made anywhere, a Defense Attorney represents their clients throughout, prosecutors represent the government, and witnesses are hard to get. These themes were all emphasized in the courts chapter. I watched the movie through a free download website called spacemov.
The purpose of jail systems is to serve as a correctional institution for inmates with diverse circumstances. Jails holding are on average 3 days; however, some inmates serve up to a year depending on their circumstances, many in which have not been convicted. This led me to further analyze the inmates in jail who are awaiting a trail. As listed in the constitution, the 6th amendment to be exact, a criminal defendant should have the right to a speedy trial. Obviously, how “speedy” this trial should be is relative and may surly depend on the on the type of case.
The Sixth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution, the Speedy Trial Act of 1974 and the states’ constitutional or statutory provisions establish the right to a speedy trial of criminal defendants. In particular, the 6th Amendment’s Clause states that “in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial” (Susskind, 1993).While the U. S. Constitution does not provide a precise frame of time, states’ laws specify the time within which prosecution must try a defendant. However, the computations are so complex that cases are rarely dismissed on the ground of violation of the speedy trial right (Shestokas, 2014). In fact, ironically defendants have to demand a speedy trial for these time periods to run and their
About The Plea The Plea is a film that tries to inform society of the issues with plea bargains and the overall criminal justice system. In the film, a couple of people who were all innocent where charged for a crime that they didn’t commit. The reason for the charges where, mostly, because they took plea deals due to the pressure that they received either by the lawyers, judges, or/and family members. According to Lynch (2003), “More than 90 percent of the criminal cases in America are never tried, much less proven, to juries” (p. 24). Our System Encourage Innocent Defendants to Plead Unfortunately, due to the amount of crime activity that is going on, the court has to many cases to handle and plea bargains are pushed on people to avoid the long process of a trail.
Our system needs to start making sure that arrests, probations, and incarcerations aren't the first resort. People should be released within a day of being arrested. The only thing they should have to do is show up to their assigned court date. (After Cash Bail) Courts dates need to be assigned soon after the arrest occurs so that all defendants can have a quick and reliable trial. Bail is a terrible way to evade pretrial detention.
The Constitution states “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” ( US Constitution) As you can see, the Bill of Rights 6th Amendment allows the accused to understand the charges against them: the accused is told what he/ she is being accused of, who is accusing them, and is allowed to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. Moreover, it allows for the movement of rightful convictions.
The biggest issue within the Criminal Justice system is the large number of wrongful convictions, innocent people sentenced to die for crimes they did not commit. People are put in prison for years, even executed for false convictions. This affects not only those put in prison but friends and family of the accused. Wrongful convictions aren’t solely a tragedy for those directly involved either. It weakens the faith the public has for the justice system as well as poses safety issues; when innocent people are put away, the real criminals are still out there.
The steps in entering a guilty plea is extremely important and the offender must understand the consequences of pleading guilty to a case. The Unites States Supreme Court has held that a guilty plea constitutes a conviction. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure require judges to inform the defendant of the various rights he or she is surrendering by pleading guilty. Additionally, entering a guilty plea must be voluntary and not forced or result of any promises. There must be a factual basis to make sufficient inquiry for the plea.
Since the courts are backlogged and many public defenders and judges being overworked, this causes plea bargaining to be used repeatedly. According to Walker et al. (2018), plea bargaining leaves many people no option but to plea guilty even when this is not their best option. This is due to a multitude of reasons but mainly to receive a lesser charge. For example, a felony and little time in jail may be better than risking multiple felonies and an excessive amount of time in jail.
Evidence does take time to surface for example the Casey Anthony case where she was proven innocent but it was later found that she had searched up ''efficient ways to kill'' on Google just before her daughter's murder, evidence that ultimately shocks us and demands for the court to re-evaluate. The abolition of double jeopardy will finally allow this. Dangerous criminals should not be allowed the slightest bit of chance of escaping punishment: evasion of prison by these criminals does not benefit anyone, prison aims to reduce crime by punishing and acting as a deterrence and also to rehabilitate criminals. If criminals do not serve their term, they are more likely to commit more crime as having not undergone rehabilitation.